Access Ventures seeks new ways to lower costs for the housing insecure
ImpactAlpha Editor
Dennis Price
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Impact fund managers steer private credit to places equity fears to tread. Fundraising has been tough going for private equity fund managers, impact funds included. Private credit, on the other hand, is booming. On this month's Liist of actively raising impact funds, debt-focused fund managers are expanding the reach of private credit into niche and underinvested markets and communities with the help of concessional and catalytic capital from foundations, family offices, donor-advised funds and even retail investors. Amazonia Impact Ventures, a UK-based fund manager, is providing loans to women and Indigenous communities in the Amazon for sustainable agroforestry, forest management and biodiversity preservation. Nonprofit fund manager New Story Ventures is lending to land development projects in Mexico to help low-income families become homeowners. In the US, RSF Social Finance is funding community organizations and businesses that traditional banks and lenders deem too small or too risky.
African e-commerce darling Copia files for administration as funding dries up. Copia, which delivers household goods and appliances to more than 500,000 hard-to-reach rural customers, has been known as Kenya’s "rural Amazon.com." Copia has now filed for administration after a turbulent year and difficulty fundraising. Copia Global, which oversees the operations of Copia Kenya, was unable to attract capital on acceptable terms, Copia said in a statement. “Copia Global is now winding down, leaving the Copia Kenya business in a new position to raise capital directly.” Impact investors including Goodwell, LGT Group, Sorenson Impact Foundation, as well as development finance institutions like the US Development Finance Corp. and Germany’s DEG, had rallied behind the company's mission to help rural households access goods as conveniently as wealthier consumers in advanced economies. "Even though we've taken a loss, if the company continues to function, then our capital will have had the impact we intended," Goodwell's Lilian Oyando told ImpactAlpha.
📰Breaking news. A federal appeals court ruled against Fearless Fund, halting the Atlanta-based venture capital fund’s grant program for Black female founders (for background see, “Legal challenge to Fearless Fund misses the mark on racial bias in venture capital”). The ruling gives a victory to conservative activists seeking to dismantle diversity programs in business and finance. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Goldman Sachs is hiring an Americas-focused head of sustainability and impact for its private asset and wealth management group in New York… The Milken Institute is recruiting an innovative finance intern in Washington, DC… mHUB is on the hunt for a climate and energy innovation fellow in Chicago… Village Capital seeks a UK-based fund manager for its Refugee Venture Fund… BlueOrchard Finance is looking for a Nairobi-based private debt investment officer for Africa. Candidates must speak proficient English and French.
Among the misperceptions that have kept capital from flowing to broad sectors of emerging markets: Risks are too high. Customers are too poor. …
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
The investment advisory industry manages trillions and trillions of dollars, for individuals and institutions, to support their financial objectives. Increasingly, thanks to the …
As a lender to the kind of middle-market companies that employ vast swaths of the country’s skilled workers, Lafayette Square discounts its interest …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Biden’s new Chinese tariffs and how they impact …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The divergent vibes at Mission Investors Exchange and …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The rebound in blended finance; how Big Tech …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Editor’s note: The shareholder representative nonprofit As You Sow has borne the brunt of the coordinated backlash against corporate and investor action on …
There are two different worlds in the news. One is the news of headlines – of the qualitative experience of the world, seemingly …
In our previous post in this series, I reflected on the challenges we’ve faced in the process of designing an investment strategy that …
In the ever-evolving financial landscape, the rise of impact investing has marked a transformative era where the investment community is no longer solely …
There is much debate on the tradeoff between impact and return, yet little is discussed about the strategies to ensure how this tradeoff …
Around the world, as many as 214 million workers live in poverty, unable to meet their families’ basic needs because their wages fall …
The fight against climate change relies on global supply chains. Clean energy technologies are exceptionally materials-intensive, the supply of which relies on the …
The global challenges of poverty and income inequality can often seem insurmountable. But investors and companies can help to tackle these critical issues, …
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
Among the misperceptions that have kept capital from flowing to broad sectors of emerging markets: Risks are too high. Customers are too poor. …
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …
Impact fund managers steer private credit to places equity fears to tread. Fundraising has been tough going for private equity fund managers, impact funds included. Private credit, on the other hand, is booming. On this month's Liist of actively raising impact funds, debt-focused fund managers are expanding the reach of private credit into niche and underinvested markets and communities with the help of concessional and catalytic capital from foundations, family offices, donor-advised funds and even retail investors. Amazonia Impact Ventures, a UK-based fund manager, is providing loans to women and Indigenous communities in the Amazon for sustainable agroforestry, forest management and biodiversity preservation. Nonprofit fund manager New Story Ventures is lending to land development projects in Mexico to help low-income families become homeowners. In the US, RSF Social Finance is funding community organizations and businesses that traditional banks and lenders deem too small or too risky.
African e-commerce darling Copia files for administration as funding dries up. Copia, which delivers household goods and appliances to more than 500,000 hard-to-reach rural customers, has been known as Kenya’s "rural Amazon.com." Copia has now filed for administration after a turbulent year and difficulty fundraising. Copia Global, which oversees the operations of Copia Kenya, was unable to attract capital on acceptable terms, Copia said in a statement. “Copia Global is now winding down, leaving the Copia Kenya business in a new position to raise capital directly.” Impact investors including Goodwell, LGT Group, Sorenson Impact Foundation, as well as development finance institutions like the US Development Finance Corp. and Germany’s DEG, had rallied behind the company's mission to help rural households access goods as conveniently as wealthier consumers in advanced economies. "Even though we've taken a loss, if the company continues to function, then our capital will have had the impact we intended," Goodwell's Lilian Oyando told ImpactAlpha.
📰Breaking news. A federal appeals court ruled against Fearless Fund, halting the Atlanta-based venture capital fund’s grant program for Black female founders (for background see, “Legal challenge to Fearless Fund misses the mark on racial bias in venture capital”). The ruling gives a victory to conservative activists seeking to dismantle diversity programs in business and finance. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Goldman Sachs is hiring an Americas-focused head of sustainability and impact for its private asset and wealth management group in New York… The Milken Institute is recruiting an innovative finance intern in Washington, DC… mHUB is on the hunt for a climate and energy innovation fellow in Chicago… Village Capital seeks a UK-based fund manager for its Refugee Venture Fund… BlueOrchard Finance is looking for a Nairobi-based private debt investment officer for Africa. Candidates must speak proficient English and French.
Among the misperceptions that have kept capital from flowing to broad sectors of emerging markets: Risks are too high. Customers are too poor. …
In New Orleans, the city’s housing finance agency has become a “green bank” to underwrite community solar, water treatment projects, and resilience hubs. …
Private equity fund managers looking for value-creation opportunities are increasingly finding their way to impact themes like climate-resilient and sustainable agriculture, employee engagement …
ImpactAlpha, January 19 – Impact investors have for years debated the need for embedded structures to incentivize impact outcomes for impact fund managers. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 15 – The $4 trillion muni market is so big that small movements in the pricing of bonds can mean shifts of …
ImpactAlpha, November 17 – That women are more adversely affected by climate change is well established (in impact and development circles at any …
This week’s Agents of Impact Call continued a tradition started nearly a decade ago by Fran Seegull of the US Impact Investing Alliance …
ImpactAlpha, Sept. 29 – It’s the age-old struggle: labor vs capital, workers vs. owners. But what happens when employees get a stake in the …
ImpactAlpha, August 25 – A growing ecosystem of Native-led entrepreneurs, lenders, financial intermediaries and nonprofits are driving Indian Country’s emerging economy. “It’s kind …
ImpactAlpha, Jun. 22 – Even as some politicians ramp up anti-ESG rhetoric, asset owners and allocators are signaling an appetite for investment strategies …
ImpactAlpha, Mar. 31 – The search for a universal metric to guide investments in racial justice and equitable wealth-building was…aspirational. “We are still a …
ImpactAlpha. Feb. 24 – “A labor market where workers have more opportunities and have more power and have more leverage is a good …
The investment advisory industry manages trillions and trillions of dollars, for individuals and institutions, to support their financial objectives. Increasingly, thanks to the …
As a lender to the kind of middle-market companies that employ vast swaths of the country’s skilled workers, Lafayette Square discounts its interest …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Biden’s new Chinese tariffs and how they impact …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The divergent vibes at Mission Investors Exchange and …
Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: The rebound in blended finance; how Big Tech …
When one door closes, another one opens. For Zarû Systems’ Loren Taylor, that second door may open onto a self-contained modular vertical farm …
🎧 This Week in Impact. Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha’s top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: federal funds to …
The era of cake-ism (as in having it and eating it, too) has come to an inglorious end. “I think we’re in an …
Host Brian Walsh dives into ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. Up this week: Tracking the players building the US’s …
ImpactAlpha podcasts are back! We’re pleased to share our revamped interview show, Agents of Impact, hosted by David Bank and Sherrell Dorsey, founder …
Impact(ed) is part of the ImpactAlpha Podcast Network, a set of shows hosted and produced by leading voices in impact and sustainable investing, …
On This Week in Impact, Brian Walsh dives into some of ImpactAlpha’s top stories, with commentary from editor David Bank. This week: the …
Editor’s note: The shareholder representative nonprofit As You Sow has borne the brunt of the coordinated backlash against corporate and investor action on …
There are two different worlds in the news. One is the news of headlines – of the qualitative experience of the world, seemingly …
In our previous post in this series, I reflected on the challenges we’ve faced in the process of designing an investment strategy that …
In the ever-evolving financial landscape, the rise of impact investing has marked a transformative era where the investment community is no longer solely …
There is much debate on the tradeoff between impact and return, yet little is discussed about the strategies to ensure how this tradeoff …
Around the world, as many as 214 million workers live in poverty, unable to meet their families’ basic needs because their wages fall …
The fight against climate change relies on global supply chains. Clean energy technologies are exceptionally materials-intensive, the supply of which relies on the …
The global challenges of poverty and income inequality can often seem insurmountable. But investors and companies can help to tackle these critical issues, …
Like the 1.5°C goal for climate, responsible tech needs a clear North Star to guide investments and innovations. To build an ecosystem of …
U.S. impact investors, we have a problem. In truth, there are several, and they all center around just how challenging it is to …
Achieving net-zero emissions requires transitioning from a fossil-fueled economy to one energized through metals and materials. Nearly $2 trillion in investment in mining …
In the dynamic economic environment of the Asia-Pacific region, a significant investment opportunity is emerging: institutional investors’ capacity to champion gender equality through …
Among the misperceptions that have kept capital from flowing to broad sectors of emerging markets: Risks are too high. Customers are too poor. …
The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is seeding green projects in primarily low-income communities by sending $27 billion through a network of nonprofit lenders. …
The winner of a contest to sharpen the impact lens of students through deal sourcing and diligence was a team from London Business …
ImpactAlpha, January 26 – Ines Schiller got the idea for seaweed tampons while training in South Africa to be a marine environment guide. …
ImpactAlpha, Dec. 23 – Bold leaders. Taking action. Driving impact. That’s the tagline we’ve used for the dozens of Agents of Impact we profiled …
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished …
Sustainable development? “More of the same.” Forest carbon credits? “Outside-imposed extraction.” Impact investing? “Are we really going far enough? Or are we just …
ImpactAlpha, September 8 — In 15 years in impact investing, Christopher Bentley noticed “a lot of for-profit companies focused on the criminal justice …
ImpactAlpha, August 18 – Monica Brand Engel’s advice to impact investors is this: Imperfect execution is ok. “Authentic impact is about accepting imperfection …
ImpactAlpha, Aug. 11 – Samuel Yeboah isn’t discouraged by the economic storm battering his home country of Ghana and many other emerging economies. “As …
Many investors look at promising new climate solutions and say, ‘Great, come back to me when you have traction.’ Azolla Ventures is more …
ImpactAlpha, June 30 – The first thing that Katherine Stodulka does when you meet her is suggest you meet someone else. Then she’ll …
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